Underworld: Conspiracy
by Azure Dragon of the North
Summary: Ziodex is the new cash-crop for the vampires. Darius Whitman has an assignment to keep it from hitting the market. Her only problem goes by the name of Krvaven.


Underworld Conspiracy:   
  
CASE 1: Ziodex  
  
BACKSTORY:  
  
Darius Whitman had never been much for travel or adventure. She had always dreamed of staying home and being a couch potato. But life it would seem had other plans for her. Instead of making her lazy or even liking vegetables, Fate it would seem made her brilliant and meant for something more.   
  
That was why, at the age of twenty-one she was doing something outrageous. Instead of going to college like her friends or traveling the world like her siblings, she was in law enforcement. Not your average everyday police force mind you, but something bigger, something better.   
  
The agency was called RATS (Research and Transcriptions of Supernaturals), funded by undisclosed sources, their primary object was the study, research and archiving of all supernatural activity in the world. Each branch of RATS focused on a specific place and type of supernatural.   
  
Darius had been specially selected by a series of fluke events. Which will be discussed at a later date. Needless to say, she was nothing less then disappointed to be assigned to Eastern Europe; more to the point, POO, (Point of Origin), for a number of Supernatural species and off-shoots.   
  
Ziodex: A vampire owned business that makes blood. Not synthetic blood but real stuff. They are a few months away from cornering the market on blood supplies.   
  
MISSION: Investigate the company and suggest actions.   
  
  
  
FOURTEEN DAYS AGO:  
  
Darius sighed as she pushed the ever growing pile of papers to the side. She was never going to get out of this damn office much less out of this damn chair. They kept thinking that because she had survived one…..Darius stopped her thoughts and shook head hard enough to make it hurt. There was no use in thinking about it now. The past was gone and had to stay that way.   
  
"Hey D, we have something for you."   
  
Darius looked up with a scalding expression as her supervisor bounced over.  
  
"Lydia, I don't want to know. There are twenty-five other people in this forsaken building. Can't you find them?"  
  
Lydia stopped in mid stride and crossed her arms over her chest. "What is with you? It's not that time of the month is it?"  
  
Darius sat back in her chair and glared, "What?"  
  
"You have been really bitchy lately. Like the whole world is against you or something."   
  
"Well maybe it is. I have been pushing paper for the last three freaking years. I was trained for operative work and here I am sitting at a desk." Darius kicked the underside of her desk as she spoke.  
  
Lydia smiled brightly and thrust out her gift. "Then cheer up 007 'cause here is your chance to shine."   
  
Darius snatched the file and read it over before giving Lydia a deadly look. "Are they fucking insane?"  
  
"They must be if they are putting you in the field." Came the off side remark of one of her fellow paper-pushers.   
  
"Shut it Ramsey," Lydia glared over at him. "This here is special assignment."   
  
"Like what? Rescue Godzilla?"   
  
"No, like investigating Ziodex." Lydia smirked at the look on Ramsey's face. "Yeah, it's big league time. The boss man wants D here to face them."   
  
Darius stood up quickly and threw the file at Lydia. "No."  
  
Stepping around her desk she strides out of the cubicle and into the ladies washroom. Leaning on the porcelain sink, she glowers at her reflection.   
  
Thick layers of black hair slide around an angular face with cut cheekbones and a smooth jaw. Pouting lips and oval shaped eyes in smoky gray stare back.   
  
"D?" Lydia pokes her head in and approaches cautiously. "D, are you okay?"  
  
Darius doesn't answer, tearing her gaze off the mirror she stares at her hands. Their grip on the skin edges has made her knuckles white.   
  
"Why Lydia? Tell me that much?"  
  
"Boss man thinks you're ready."   
  
"Boss Man?" Darius barks out a laugh, "That over paid, Armani wearing shit wouldn't know daybreak from nightfall if it wasn't for you."   
  
Lydia shrugs, "Your reports don't say-"  
  
"Of course not!" Darius hisses, "Do you think I would tell the company shrink that I am turning into a vampire?" Darius lifts her head staring at Lydia via the mirror. "I say what people want to hear, nothing more." The gray eyes bleed blue as her faces takes on a deadly, ethereal beauty.  
  
"But D it's been four years," Lydia whispers softly as the woman controls herself. "There would have been symptoms before now."   
  
"Oh yeah. There have lots of them." Darius squeezes the sink and pulls just slightly. The wall lets out a sharp cry as the tiles snap and the plumbing is ripped out. Water sprays into an arch as Darius hands the sink to Lydia.   
  
Lydia backs away, her eyes wide as Darius tosses the sink basin to the side. She stands in the water, letting it rain on her.   
  
"Maybe you need this more then anyone else." Lydia said quietly after a moment. "If for no other reason then to come to terms with it."   
  
"I can't Lydia."   
  
"You don't know that." Lydia whispers. "You've been behind a desk for years; perhaps this investigation is the answer."   
  
Darius watches the woman closely, "You really believe that, don't you?"  
  
Lydia nods, "I know what you used to be like Darius. You've changed and it's not for the better."   
  
Darius crosses her arms, "And you think this will fix it."   
  
Lydia shakes her head, "No. Only you can do that. But maybe if you saw them; saw the vampires for real, you would feel better."   
  
Darius sighs heavily after a long moment of silence. "I'll take the Ziodex case. But don't count on anything."   
  
PRESENT:  
  
Darius zoomed in on the vampire as he watches the streets below. His companion, a woman, was also watching intently. The man was the one with the camera. The woman was the one in charge. He took a few shots then looked up for the signal. The woman nods just slightly and he drops to the street below. One hundred feet later he lands with no more then a breath inward and walks into the crowd. The woman follows just as smoothly.   
  
Darius puts down the night-vision binoculars and checks her log. Using a waterproof pencil she marks on her sheet the time and location.   
  
SUBJECT A: Casper; left watchtower and joins crowd after taking pictures.   
  
SUBJECT B: Selene; possible leader, follows.   
  
Folding up the log and packing away the 'noculars, Darius climbs down the fire escape and drops twenty feet to the ground. Fixing her coat so that her collar is up, she joins in behind the vampires.   
  
They are tracking a large black name and his companion. The scruffy white man is of little interest, but he large man. He's something else.   
  
Darius stopped as they descended into the subway station. She wasn't here to follow werewolves on a hunt for food. She was here to investigate vampires and their company Ziodex. Her thoughts were still arguing as she saw the vampires enter. She caught the invisible signal and a third man follows the woman. Darius follows him.   
  
Darius steps out of the crowd before entering the subway. Warm wet bodies are not something she enjoys having contact with. In fact they disgust her beyond all belief. Pressing herself into the wet tiles instead makes her feel slightly better. She inches her way into the station just as a shout erupts.   
  
It sounds like "Blood," but she's not sure. Darius hears it before it happens, the sharp snap and click of bullets and guns. Throwing herself down the last steps she hits the wet stone as bullets erupt in staccato. Screaming fills the subway as humans run for cover.   
  
"What the hell?" Darius makes herself descend into the station and get a better look. Werewolves opening fire in public? That's unheard of.  
  
Pulling out her binoculars, Darius changes the settings and takes quick shots. Digital snapshots of the impossible as she crouches for cover behind a column.   
  
There is a moment pause as the two sides reload.   
  
Darius breathes in, that's her mistake. Blood has filled the air, lots of it. Along with fear and excitement; they have perfumed the air into something heady and alluring. Darius clenches her teeth as the scents take over her body and her blood changes. Her cells mutate and she becomes something supernatural.   
  
She is still struggling to adjust when the sound of screaming fills the station. The sound is followed by a howl of satisfaction. Darius rolls to her knees to take a better look. The train is stopped with numerous windows blown apart and a few passengers dead. Darius climbs to her feet and staggers to the nearest car. Blood has pooled on the metal floor as humans bleed to death. Glass glitters like horrible diamonds as she walks into the mess. The back door is dented and the glass is gone. Looking outward reveals the glass and nothing else.   
  
Darius climbs down and looks along the length of the train. There! Something is just beyond the second to last car. She squeezes herself between the cars and makes her way to the object. Her keen sense of smell makes her stop halfway. Blood and meat are all that are left. Swallowing the urge to wretch, Darius closes the distance and finds the mangled body of a vampire.   
  
A quick lick of her lips does nothing to relieve the dryness. Her breathing is shallow and ragged as she stares at the mess. At one time he would have been pretty. In fact, Darius recognizes his profile as James.   
  
The girls at the office had thought he was an older version of James Dean. So they had called him James.   
  
Taking out her log she fills in a line: SUBJECT: James, dead.  
  
Her hands are shaking badly as she rolls up the log and tucks it back in her jacket. Taking out her cell phone she dials the head office.   
  
"Lydia, its D." Darius turns her back on the dead vampire. "Lycans just opened fire in an operational subway. Two Death Dealers are dead that I know of. A third one is still missing. Send a team into remove the bodies."   
  
Darius ended the call and climbs back into the train. A few humans let out a scream of terror as she approaches. Darius ignores them and steps out into the platform. Uniformed officers are rushing onto the platform.   
  
Darius speaks to the first one to approach her.  
  
"Show me some ID."   
  
Darius fishes out her badge and he looks at it skeptically. Glancing at her twice before handing it back, "The chief is over there."   
  
Darius crosses to a fifty-something man in a wet trench coat and baggy pants. "Inspector?"  
  
He turns with a grumpy expression, "Who are you?"  
  
"Darius Whitman, RAT sent me."   
  
The man grimaces at her, "I don't need no X-Files freaks on my crime scene."   
  
"That's cool." Darius holds up her hands, "That's just fine. Then can I leave?"  
  
He considers that for a moment. "Did you see anything?"  
  
"No sir. Just heard the gun shots and ducked for cover."   
  
"Were you in the station?"  
  
"No, sir. I was on the train at the front car."   
  
He looks over the train and nods, "Fine, get out of here and keep quiet."   
  
"Got it chief." Darius waves to him and leaves.   
  
As she exits the station, two men in black approach. "Hey D, you called?"  
  
"Shifters just opened fire in the station Martin. Does that seem odd to you?"  
  
"Very." The man nods his head, "What you thinking?"  
  
"This" She holds up the camera. "Let's go hunting."   
  
Martin arches a brow at her but doesn't argue. "So was it Lucian?"  
  
"I have no idea. The dark man I recognize but I don't know why. He could be one of Lucian's soldiers. But why would they do this? It goes against their laws."   
  
"Perhaps they were doing their own hunting?"  
  
"I thought that too." Darius nodded, "But why the subway shooting?"  
  
He shrugs, "I have no idea. Desperation maybe?"  
  
"Possible." Darius looks at the camera, "Come on, we need to figure this out."   
  
Darius climbs into the back of a waiting black car and Martin drives out into the rain. 


End file.
